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Mindfulness

Staying Calm, Keeping Balanced, Allowing for Reflection

2021-11-05T12:48:49+00:00

As we start to get back into the swing of Fall activities (at least those of us in the Northern hemisphere are), let us remember to not get so caught up in all the various commitments and/or responsibilities that come along with this time of the year that may cause us to become stressed and overly busy. And although we have missed out on many of the fun things we were used to doing, many of us have also enjoyed the slowing down –and used the time to rejuvenate our mind, body, and soul.  And if you feel bored or listless, remember how uplifting feeling relaxed and "just being" is. "Just being" offers our mind, body, and soul the energetic space to recalibrate - without us even being aware of it. And it puts us in a state where we can reflect. Modern life has often led us to ignore the reflective and feeling parts of ourselves. Our forced slowdowns this past year and a half have given us more time than usual to be calmer, more reflective, and opportunities to "just be." Links to 3 companion posts are at the end. To be happy and feel good we need to attend to our body, mind, emotions, and spiritual connection – and it is the subtler parts of ourselves that nurture these. The subtler parts of ourselves are more in tune with love – with a connection to our True Selves – to others – and everything around us. They are more based on our true reality. Being in tune with love and connected to our true reality, we navigate life adhering to love's qualities: kindness, sharing, compassion, acceptance, equality, unity, etc. We feel empowered – not in a striving for power way (based on a false strength) but from a place of inner strength (based on our true reality). This allows us to embrace the concept of me-and-you.  Humanity’s history has been based on false realities. Of separate motivations grounded in fear, greed, competition – on me-against-you. Fighting for our survival became paramount in our existence. We were reactive, rather than responsive. Although today most of us do not have to fight for our physical survival, we have maintained the competitiveness and reactive states of that survival mode. This, along with the disconnect from our True Self, has created stress and uneasiness in our beings. This has translated into the business and getting ahead ways of navigating life that has become the norm for many of us. The reactive way of navigating life that we inherited from past generations causes us to aggressively approach situations  – often bringing in past issues or being influenced by unaddressed emotions from our past – rather than responding calmly and only addressing what is currently happening. Our business, competitiveness, focus on getting ahead, and our reactive states have left no room to connect to our subtler and reflective natures – that are so important to our sense of well-being. This article/blog post is based [...]

Staying Calm, Keeping Balanced, Allowing for Reflection2021-11-05T12:48:49+00:00

The Value of Deep Breathing, Newsletter, October 2020.

2021-10-23T03:38:51+00:00

Deep breathing calms us – body, mind, and spirit – in the present moment, and in times of stress. It also creates a connection to that part of our self when calm resides. And each time we breathe deeply, or do a practice that engages our breath, the connection becomes stronger. Together, our breath and our heart-space are the most powerful sparks of the divine within us. Deep breathing, or breathwork as it is often called, has been a part of calming, centering, and spiritual practices for eons. It connects us to our True Self – to our heart-space, which is where we tap into universal flow, and can connect to the love, wisdom, and peaceful feelings found there. --------------------------------- At the end of this message is a small Breathwork Practice. I will be holding a Live Video webinar in a month or so based on my upcoming Book, “Overcoming Our Unconscious Influences, like Anger, Hurt Feelings, Neediness, Control, Blaming Others for Our Unhappiness,” - book 2 of my new series. About my Books HERE. Details on follow in next Newsletter, so stay tuned ?    Sign-up for Newsletter HERE ------------------------------------- In the physical, it is our continued breath and the beating of our heart that keep us alive. But we also have an energetic body – our chi, the Eastern term for our life-force, and deep breathing positively affects our life-force. Together, our breath and our heart-space are the most powerful sparks of the divine within us. It is the quality of our focus/use/connection to our breath and the strength of our connection to our heart space that dictate how calm we are, how peaceful we feel, and how much joy we can tap into. These is turn affect our attitudes, decisions, behaviors, how we view and navigate life, which all affect how our life plays out. Stress Drains Our Life-Force In this time of change, uncertainty, and restrictions, most of us have been experiencing extra stress – at least from time to time. And since it is likely we will be facing this for the next little while, it is vital that we deal effectively with our stress. We now know that stress not only affects our mind and emotions, it also affects our physical body – including our breathing. We do nt to come out of all this as unscathed as possible. We still have control in some areas of our life, like our attitudes about all that is going on and how we deal with the stress. Deep breathing is one of the most uncomplicated habits we can engage in for general health, and to relieve stress.  Breathing and stress and interrelated. Good, full, deep breathing helps to relieve stress, which strengthens our life-force. But when we are stressed, our breathing automatically quickens, and our life-force is weakened. This is why stress can cause us to get stuck in a downward cycle. To ensure we maintain a strong life-force, we must ensure we effectively deal with our [...]

The Value of Deep Breathing, Newsletter, October 2020.2021-10-23T03:38:51+00:00

From Mindlessness to Mindfulness – Part 2 of 2

2019-05-04T18:03:43+00:00

While the self-examination required to become mindful may sound tedious, it isn’t. We start by examining our general focus, thoughts, and motives, and consider how our choices impact ourselves and those around us. We still get to live normal life, but we just do a bit of self-reflection. Once we make the decision to become more conscious, we will become aware of when we are being mindless. Spirit will gently guide us to see what we need to see. (See here for Part 1) And If we exist within a generally positive Life Matrix, we don’t have to continuously examine all our thoughts and attitudes through a microscopic lens. (See below for definition of  Life Matrix, and link to a post discussing it). Even when we are attempting to shift our Life Matrix to becoming more aware and away from the negative and a conscious effort is required, we don’t have to examine every thought or attitude we hold. Excerpted from my New Book See  here  for About Book and below for info on the next 2 books in this series due out shortly. (Also below is information on my 1st book, “Your Journey to Peace…”, ) By acknowledging what is brought to our attention, and choosing to look at whatever it is in a calmer, more loving, or inclusive way, our Life Matrix will begin to shift. This starts the ball rolling and we will then have many ah-ha moments where we become aware we could choose a better attitude or behavior—sometimes only after the fact, and that is OK. Becoming mindful is a process. We will forget. It may even sometimes seem like we are taking two steps forward and one step back. This is because we are now becoming aware of what we didn’t realize before. At this point, we are well on our way to conscious living because becoming aware is the big first step. But we must always remember: Self-examination’s purpose is not to make us feel bad or to shame us.  It is to make us become more aware of our emotions and where our mind wants to take us, so that we can make better, more conscious choices.   Calming or centering practices like prayer, meditation, yoga, Tai Chi or simply spending time in nature attunes our beings to our True Self, whose comforting nature and gentle guidance will help us to become more mindful. So does journaling. When we are mindful: We see our past and present experiences through a clear lens, so there is no need to blame or project our frustrations or miseries onto others. We are empowered and do not expect others to fix our problems. Nor do we wait for any higher being to take them away as we are doing our part. Mindfulness is a cornerstone in Eastern thought systems, and it can be utilized in many different ways. Dr. Ellen Langer explains in her book, Mindfulness, that the practice of true mindfulness within Eastern teachings is quite complex, focusing mainly on meditation to bring about [...]

From Mindlessness to Mindfulness – Part 2 of 22019-05-04T18:03:43+00:00

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